Britain and European Integration 1945-1998: A Documentary History. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, March, 2001

Britain and European Integration 1945-1998: A Documentary History. David Gowland and Arthur Turner, editors. Routledge. [pound]55.99. 252 pages. ISBN 0-415-17974-2. The editors have arranged their selection of documents in a broadly chronological order and begin in July 1945 with a Foreign Office memorandum which set forth the problems facing the United Kingdom: Soviet occupation of much of Eastern Europe; the possible economic collapse of wax-weary Europe and the problem of administering defeated Germany.

This selection will bring home to readers, and especially students, how far Europe has come since 1945. The last document is a joint letter from Chancellor Kohl and President Chirac to the British Prime Minister in 1998 which he felt showed they supported British views on the EU's future. While the selection of documents cannot, and does not pretend to cover every aspect of the EU's mushroom growth, it does give a good, broad view. There are helpful introductions to each section and document, an appendix e xplaining the EU's 'institutions', a chronological table and a list of further reading.